The Unwelcome Embassy

Kansas City, Missouri

June 1st, 2013

The US military were stationed in a perimeter around the evacuated city. They were awaiting the invasion force, and the war machine had been grinding furiously.

Considering the weight of the Space Marine's armour, the standard rifle had to be completely redesigned. The bullets themselves were revolutionary. Taking inspiration from HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank) Rounds, the bullets were more akin to miniaturised warheads.

The US Military had taken no chances, taking troops from several other units to amass a force of over half a million soldiers in preparation for the battle. The air force were on standby further back, with fighter jets ready for take-off in Jackson county. Tanks were stationed alongside the soldiers, ready for the defensive force.

Alongside the military were several 'specials', acting as Mercenaries or consultants. Most notable, at least to those in the know, was a man named Arsenal. A retired time traveller, Arsenal was an expert on alien life and tactics, and had helped prepare the military leaders in preparation for the day's violence. All three members of Sketchinoda were present as well, and there were others present.

Not all were there to support the military, however. There were some behind the military that cheered to welcome their new alien overlords, as they liked to call them, including some who intended to fight against the US military and earn camaraderie with the 4th Legion.

It was noon, a bright summers day of 38'C, and the human race watched anxiously for the Marines's move.

A spear of white-hot metal descended from the sky and pierced the river, right where the Kansas and Missouri rivers met, cascading waters into the street by the displacement of water. The metal pole was huge, touching both banks of the river and stopping the flow completely.

The water began to recede from the pole, and it soon became clear that the land around the pole was being elevated. It stretched upwards, like it was being pulled on a string, and the city began to split into thirds. With the water drained from the rivers, the empty riverbeds became fault lines and the earth broke apart to reveal metal staircases, starting below ground level and ascending all the way to the massive cavity at the top of the artificial mountain.

The process took a matter of minutes, converting the bowl-shaped city into a mountain as a huge metal tower began to descend from the sky. The military began to launch missiles upon the floating cathedral, but to no avail. Whether there were some form of energy shields surrounding it, or the alien metal was just that strong, they didn't know, but within a matter of minutes the tower was seated snugly inside the cavity formed from the raised earth. The water that was drained from the rivers began to pool around the city borders, forming a natural moat in the new ditches that appeared as the earth around and under the city rearranged itself into more comfortable positions.

Kansas City was taken.

Doors opened around the city and Space Marines walked out. Sixty all in all, twenty on each side, as shields went up around the city. This time, the ripples were visible, and they completely blocked all artillery that attempted to attack the city.

The communications systems all over the two states the city shared flared to life.

_/_ "Citizens of Kansas City." _/_ Captain Titus declared. _/_ "The Embassy has been placed, and we would now like to welcome you all back to your homes. Thank you for your cooperation, and we look forward to our future teamwork as neighbours and friends." _/_

The communication ended, and the military leaders gave the order.

The US MIlitary boarded their vehicles and advanced, intending to enter the city walls and rout out the invaders.

@HE_IS: Raven appeared on top of a building using his teleportation. His teleportation did not have any flashy lights to it nor did it leave any energy signatures to be traced he was just there and that was all there was to it. So this was the place he saw in his vision. It certainly did match the looks of it and it did feel like there would be a war here soon. He would have to be careful about who he was seen by in this battle as it was to early for humanity to learn about people with abilities and just one slip up could cause a problem greater than the threat the planet was already facing. He surveyed the scene and saw the path that would lead to the best path for the future. "Hello, I would just like to warn you that you might have a traitor in your midst," he warned the space marines through a telepathic link before he attempted to push a thought into a weaker members brain to cause him to turn traitor. This wasn't his full plan, but the traitor if he succumbed to the thought would cause inside damage and if not they would be at the very least put on the edge expecting another telepathic attack. He put the next stage of his plan into action and turned invisible and teleported again this time to the US Military side. He used his invisibility and walked up to Coleen and spoke to her from behind. "Hello Coleen it's been a while have you reconsidered my offer of joining me?" he asked politely and in a knowing manner as if he already knew the answer, but was just asking anyway as a form of common courtesy. Storm clouds began to form and lightning struck down near the the space marines, but none of the volts anywhere threating hitting them. He was just playing with them right now. He wanted them to be on the edge thinking that they were fighting some kind of god, when in fact they were only fighting a man. This was his greatest part of his plan keep his enemy overestimating him and then allow them to make the mistake of slacking off way too much when they saw his actualy form.

@Shadowchaos: The Space Marine that Raven spoke to Clenched his teeth inside his helmet, and slammed his fist against the winged skull on his breastplate.

The rest of his team of five turned to face him. They knew the signal. Loyalty to the Emperor.

"Chaos?" Their Sergeant, Miles, asked the Space Marine, who was a Corporal named Andrew.

"Nay, brother." Andrew replied. "Psychic infiltrator. He, male, suggested that there may be a traitor in our midst."

The Marines didn't give the joke the decency of laughter. In the Emperium, Heresy was the greatest crime of all.

-

A history lesson may be in order to the uninitiated. The Imperium was founded when the Emperor rescued millions from slavery. He took them to a new home, a new land, and taught them His ways. Over time, they grew powerful, sharing their strengths and biology and industry all the while growing in one attribute above all.

Zealous Devotion to the Emperor.

Their ancestors had known the lives of products- bred and sold as animals, living only for the pleasure of their master. The Emperor had shown their forefathers the light, a name they took for themselves, and had taught them to love themselves.

It only took five hundred years for their people to choose to worship Him, despite His protests. They knew the Emperor had His God, and He worshipped, as did the Light, but their devotion to the Emperor still bordered upon insanity even then in the distant past.

The Emperium was now 40'000 years old, and devotion had only grown among their people. Heresy was a sin so great, death was considered too merciful a penalty. And out of all of the Light, only the most loyal and devoted sons were admitted into the training camps of the cadets. And even amongst the millions of cadets, only the wisest, strongest, luckiest and above all, devoted, attained the honour of becoming a full fledged Marine.

They referred to each other as Brother because their language did not have a stronger term for loyalty. They were aware, of course, of the legends of brothers betraying one another, and growing up, each of them believed the stories to be just that- stories. Cautionary tales their mothers told them to encourage closer blood relationships with their kin.

It never occurred to them, before beginning their training, that such horrors as betrayal actually occurred. This was the root of their hatred of all things not of the Imperium.

Indeed, some of these Marines would sooner see this planet burnt to glass than treatise with this colony of backstabbers, but this planet had been deemed sacred. That was the only reason they were dealing with this weak species. They could, in time, come to see the light. In time.

"I see." Commander Miles replied to Arsenal's explanation, back behind the US lines. "So our best tactic is to infect the command structure, spread subterfuge-"

"No sir." Arsenal stated with a wearied sigh. "I'm telling you this so you understand that such tactics are impossible."

The commanding officers looked blankly at this man, the walking encyclopaedia on all things unknown, who was beginning to behave like he was dealing with children.

"These soldiers have faced against Daemons." Arsenal explained. "I'm not talking about the weak stuff from the chaos realm, I mean the very forces of the Warp itself. They have fought on battleships made of corpses that carried them over oceans of blood. They have resisted temptations from the prince of pleasure herself. The woman in red?" Arsenal asked, referring to that closed file that referred to Nirvana. "They could say no, if their loyalty was on the line. You could get the most powerful mind manipulators in the existence and theses marines would still scream 'Glory And Honour' as they fought against their reprogramming. Their loyalty is completely unshakable."

-

"We have intel." Brother Briggs informed Sergeant Miles. "Psychic was on that tower, then warped behind civilian lines, and is now manipulating the weather around us."

The sergeant looked at the stormclouds over their heads, realising they were artificial, and took a deep breath as the scanners in his helmet made the calculations.

"Hold fast brothers." Sergeant Miles ordered, and the lightnings bolts struck the ground, landing near the marines but not actually harming them or their equipment.

-

High above them, ten Space Marines burst out of a docking station. They were equipped with Jump packs.

Jump Packs were powerful enough to be used in short-range spacecraft. Unladen with Space Marines, theses heavy thrusters can easily reach orbit on their own strength. When used by a Space Marine, they can reach over half a mile in height in a single burst, covering great distances in single bounds.

Because of the question of weight, their equipment was lighter. Their armour was just as large and powerful as another Space Marines, otherwise their legs would be shattered from landing, but these Assault Marines favoured Melee weapons. Each carried grenades and a weapon in each hand, usually a Bolt Pistol as a ranged weapon with a Chainsword as a companion, some carried Chain Axes, Force Mauls and Storm Shields, with the leader of one unit wearing Power Fists, unusually large and powerful mechanical hands, with the other commander forgoing ranged weapons altogether in favour of two lightning claws.

"And of the Assault Marine so do I decree: He shall descend upon the perfidious foe as an Angel of Judgement from on high. Let the jump pack be his wings, and the roar of its engines a hymn of retribution. Let the chainsword be his sceptre of decree, its harsh voice singing joyfully with each and every blow. With it shall the Assault Marine bring bloody retribution to the heretic, the traitor and all alien aggressors who trespass on the Emperor's domain. So will the Assault Marine be the hunter of warlords and the slayer of kings. His armour shall run slick with the life-blood of the vanquished, and all shall honour his name."

And the Assault Marines did their jobs well. For this mission, four of the ten marines also carried a Psychic Hood- a larger helmet that completely blocked out any psychic abilities at the cost of face exposure, though they also wore optical and breathing apparatus to compensate for the loss of intel. They split into two teams, spreading out, as the Psykers in HQ scanned out at predicted Raven's next jump.

The dust on the road to Kansas City flies up for a moment as if a strong wind blew, the small particles dispersing into the air becoming less and less visible. What caused that was a motorcycle passing by at a speed of 400 km/h. The driver was Charlotte, a mercenary on her way to the destination of her newest mission. She was hired by the US military this time around, a rather unusual employer as far as she's concerned.

The reason she was hired was simple, there was an alien invasion going on. It probably isn't as dramatic as it sounds but already from afar she could tell that there was something going on there.

She comes to a sudden stop on a small hill just 5 km away from the city itself. She immediately takes action getting off Fenrir and activating the Infinity Chip. What comes out the azure flame of her eye is a nearly three meters long sniper rifle, Gungnir. She gets down onto her stomach and gets the sniper in position.

She takes aim observing the city and what was happening around it. It doesn't take her two long to spot potential targets, those she can consider enemies on this mission. A group of ten iron clad men, splitting into two groups just as she was observing them as it seemed. Charlotte doesn't think too long and presses trigger without hesitation.

@HE_IS: Raven smiled because his plan worked perfectly these invaders were out looking for him now. He teleported again and reappeared in front of a group of Space Marines. He became visible again and stared down the invaders from another world. "Leave now," he said in a very commanding voice that could make even the most powerful of people cower in fear. Peace talks were done as he understood it would not work on these people. Only a warrior could persuade them to leave. He folded his arms across his chest and sent a death glare at his foes before lifting two buildings into the air and throwing telekinetically at them. He then followed it up with a stream of molten hot fire breath. "This is the power of the countless wills of the people of this planet," He yelled as he made twenty thousand ice needles and threw them at his foes. He stopped his onslaught and waited to see if his opponents had survived. "Before you go and ask my name is Raven and my power is copying the powers of those around me and you have only seen a fraction of what I have," he said as he waited for the dust to settle and to see if he would still have more of a fight still.

The sniper shot flashed as it collided with the forcefield, before vanishing from existence a second later. Anything that wants to get in this forcefield had to be moving at an acceptable velocity and only through approved gates around the city limits.

@Shadowchaos:

"Leave now."

Five Marines turned to face Raven as two buildings are torn from their foundations and launched at the squad.

"LET FIRE BE YOUR SHIELD!" The Squad leader shouted, and the Marines opened fire on the oncoming buildings. The air shook with the mighty roar of the DAKKADAKKADAKKA erupting from the Marine's Bolters. The rapid fire from what were essentially tank-piercing grenade launchers- turned-assault rifles shredded the buildings in seconds. Seeing Raven breathe out searing flame, one Marines stepped forwards, removing the ammunition clip and placing another clip and opening fire at the falling rubble.

The Inferno Bolt Rounds erupted into superheated chemical fire. Literally fighting fire with fire, the combined maelstrom turned the falling dust and concrete into a perfect barrier of glass that only hardened as the flames continued to smelt the raw material together.

Raven continued to shout at the Marines, launching ice needles into the glass barrier as the Marines got to the ground, preparing their counter attack under the cover of the smoke. Their scanners made it perfectly easy to see through the smog, their enhanced lungs and breathing apparatus made the toxic fumes as fresh air in comparison to what they could take under other circumstances, these five marines remembered what they were trained for.

These were tactical marines.

"No place shall be denied to them, no enemy shall bar their way. They shall be proud of heart and stoic of spirit. They shall be measured and wise, yet their hatred shall burn with such heat that their enemies wither and die before them. They shall be masters of every weapon, every ploy, and every strategy, fierce in the attack and solid in the defence. They shall go where others fear to tread, and return victorious, that we all might live but one more day."

They came from wars in the grim dark relative future, where the bloodshed had escalated to such levels that Raven's tactics were akin to a small rebel movement they would crush in an afternoon.

The hard part would be routing the enemy while preventing damage to civilian homes.

Bending on one knee, Brother Timothy launched an Armourbane Missile through the glass barrier towards Raven. Unlike missiles designed to take out vehicles, Armourbane Missile Launchers were designed to wipe out one-man armies. It launched the missile, in this instance a devastating Krak missile, at supersonic speeds towards Raven and unleash a concentrated blast powerful enough to even wipe out an unarmoured Primarch.

The Marines expected Raven to dodge, firing Psychobane rounds around the perimeter of the blast as he would teleport out. The Psychobane rounds, which would explode when near any being of paranormal ability, and disable their power for a time. The bullet itself would easily tear arms out of a shoulder, or destroy a head, but they traded out the excessive overkill of the standard Bolter Round in order to ensure that the target was not able to regenerate or dodge the next volley, which would be standard Bolter rounds, capable of levelling a building in seconds.

Gungnir's shot proved to be ineffective. The only option left was to engage in direct combat. Charlotte mounts Fenrir again and proceeds towards the city. She still had Gungnir mounted to bike, so she could fire while driving. She enters the city after a minute of driving at maximum speed. Charlotte slows down, now looking around for potential targets or allies.

Just one city block later she spots her enemies, the same soldiers she aimed at before. They were moving across the rooftops.

Charlotte takes aim at the same one from before, firing one more round at him.

After the shot was taken Gungnir disappears into the azure flame of her eye.

@Fehafare: One of the five Assault marines led by the Marines with the claws was launched sideways by a shot that impacted against his shoulder plates. One of his battle-brothers grabbed his leg and launched him towards the source of the shot.

The injured marine, Alons, Spiralled in the air as he activated his JumpPack, bombing towards the ground like a peregrine falcon, adjusting his trajectory to follow the bike. His useless left shoulderpad crumpled off from the sheer speed- a massive chunk of cerametal that crashed into the side of a building, breaking the concrete covering and landing on an abandoned car, crushing it.

The exposed arm was covered in thinner, black Carapace armour that moved significantly faster without the added weight, and with one added burst, he slashed out at the bike with his revving chainsword as he landed in front of Charlotte.

The rest of Alons's four battle brothers landed on buildings in front of Charlotte, ready to jump into action if she swerved around Alons. The squad leader, Taguel, flicked his claws and lightning parked around them, minuscule blades revving around each claw as he did so.

The white house

A man in a trenchcoat and boots walks into the oval office. He is here to have a chat with the president of USA.. His name is Albert, and he is a member of the F.E.A.R. team. He was sent there to convince the president to retreat the army. DEfuturuM beleaves that the aliens can only bring good to the world through technology and that it would be usefull to keep them here. His boss, Thomas Leach decided that the Space Marines tech is too strong for the army, and as he has served with many of the people sent to certain death he has decided to send his best diplomat, Albert Whiskers to make the President change his mind about fighting them.

As soon as he arrives in the office he sits infront of president Obama. "OK, we don't have much time so I'll be quick. DEfuturuM used a lot of favores to get you to talk with me. We want you to recall your forces. The aliens technology is far too great for us. We will only waste lives by fighting them and that is not something neither us nor you want. You want to preserve American lives, right?"

Meanwhile

Thomas, Dimitry, Catherine and Nole sat together in the passinger seats of a medivac, a flying transport ship developed by DEfuturuM as a means of transporting their teams around the world, quickly and efficenty. They were in route to Kansas city, sent by DEfuturuM to preserve as many live as they possibly could. They were all armed with sleep bullets, much like sleeping darts only, bullets. They were supposed to shoot more American soldiers then the invading aliens would.

As they approached their target Thomas got up. He walked to the cockpit and told the pilot to it.

"See you guys when you get there. Dimka, you're in charge." He said as he jumped out, pushing of and propeling himself at the force field.

"Show-off bloodsucker." Cathrine said as she followed him as far as her human eyes could see.

As he landed on the force field he actually hoped he would pass right through it. Instead the lower part ofhis body was burned off but regenerated in a few seconds. "Damn bastards think this is going to stop me?" He said as he turned into a bat and flew to the nearest designated enterance point. As soon as he got in he was intercepted by a squad of Space Marines. He looked at them "I'm here to help. Take me to your leader. Oh and an aircraft is coming with the rest of my team. Make sure not to knock it out of the air." He knew that was the only aircraft coming for the city as he used his military connections to make sure as few soldires would be sent in as possible. He didn't want them dying.

The marines only looked at him in confusin as if decideing what to do with him. "Just take to the HQ already and I'll explain everything to your leader." Dumb fucks, can't even understand simple orders.

"Listen here maggots, take me to him NOW!" He said using a commanders tone. He had many years of experiance using it as he served all kinds of positions in the army, from Drill sargent to General of the Army. Anyone with at least a bit of discipline would listen to him, and those without any would shit their pants the second he said something using that tone. The Marines were going to take him to their commander one way or another.

Charlotte jumps back and off her bike as she sees the wounded soldier approach for the skies. As soon as she was off she makes Fenrir disappear, storing it back into the Infinity Chip and ensuring that the only thing the solider strikes is empty air. She lands five meters behind her original location, looking at the five soldiers with her left eye which was now burning in an azure flame. She had no malice on her face, in fact there wasn't any expression. The closest thing to an emotion you could read in Charlotte's body language was slight confusion.

The flame doesn't stop burning and from it comes a new weapon almost instantly. Excalibur formed itself gently around Charlotte's hand and as soon the whole weapon came into existence Charlotte firmly gripped it.

She lifts the cannon without saying a word and fires a quick burst of bullets at the Space Marine in front of her.

Five light blue balls of energy were launched at him, aiming for his already damaged shoulder, head and torso.

Brothers Uriel and Philemon both looked at the white-haired earthling that was so demanding of them. "Vampire?" Uriel asked, looking at his ally.

"Definitely vampire." Philemon said, turning around and walking back to the gateroom. "Brother Vigil! This one's for you!"

A large Marine, this one in red armour, stepped forth, then removed his helmet as he approached Thomas.

"BROTHER OF MY BLOOD!" This red Marine announced, sheathing his massive sword across his back as he stood in front of the vampire. "Pardon my battle-brothers, they tend not to appreciate it when bloodsuckers like ourselves make demands of them, but you requested to meet the squad leader and that would be I." Vigil grinned, bearing pointed canine fangs as his eyes flashed red. He was a vampire, clearly so, yet seemed to have no problem with either the scorching Kansas summer heat, nor the religious symbols and artefacts on his armour.

A Vampire Evolved, augmented into a Space Marine.

@Fehafare:

Alons charged into the wave of energy blasts, tilting his body so the undamaged side of his armour took the brunt of the damage. The blasts from Excalibur pecked hole after hall in the massive Ceramite armour until Alons was close enough to swing his blade for the barrel of the Excalibur.

He had taken damage, but he would devour that weapon as his brothers would descend from the skies with their chainsword and power axe to reduce this girl to pulp.

As Charlotte sees her enemy closing in on her she takes a step forward as well. With a gentle push she jumps up leaving the ground. She lands perfectly on one of the chainsaw like sword's blades avoiding any damage. She jumps up once more ascending even higher and pushing the blade towards the ground.

She was exactly above the Space Marine who was now striking empty air. Charlotte quickly twists her body, making it so that she now faces downwards while her feet are up. She extends Excalibur and it nearly reaches the soldiers head.

Just as the two meet in the middle of the path, she moving through the air and he on the ground Charlotte fires a charged singular shot from Excalibur.

@HE_IS: Thomas looked at the man infront of him. A... vampire? Not something Thomas expeced. He got all tense and his vampire senses sharpened up. It is Thomas's job as Point man of the F.E.A.R. team to hunt and kill vampires. If he wasn't sent here to be all buddy-buddy with them he would be attacking Vigil at the very moment.

But restraint is key. He was oviously not not a Strigoy as the sunlight and all the religious simboils would have killed him a long time ago. He was not a Viroy because he didn't have the aura of a Viroy, and he wasn't a Moroy as he was bloodfirsty while Moroys are the hippies of the vampire world. And he was definetly not a Dhampire. Thus Thomas came to the conclusion the he was some version of a vampire from his own world.

He opened his mout to respond to the Space Marines words but was interupted by the rest of the F.E.A.R. team arriving behind him. At the frot was Catherine West, also known as Cat. She got that name from the fact that she likes playng with her pray like a cat. She had a scar over her left eye. She brushed her red hair with one hand, and grabbed for one of her daggers called the Sinister Blades, with the other as soon as she saw the vampire Thomas was speaking with. Thomas gave her a look that ment "stand down" and looked at squad leader Vigil again. "This is Catherine. That's Nole Kennedy." He said while shaking his head at a man whose eye was covered with blond hair. "And that's my second-in-command, Dimitry Belikov." He said pointing at a Tall man with brown hair tied in a ponytail, wearing an old leather duster.

"We've been sent here to help you fight the army that stands against you. Our orders are to listen to your orders. Do you have any tasks that need doing?" Thomas said in a monotone voice, trying not to reveal his fangs as for Viroys that is a sign of aggresion and talking peacefully to a vampire is difficult for him, despite the disciplin instilled in himby years of training.

@HE_IS: Raven walked out of the explosion completely unscathed and just looked at his enemies with a pleased smile. "Seems you stack up to the rumos and then some," he said in a calm and rational voice. He lifted his hand into the air and shot a thin stream of crimson negative energy at the closest marine from the tip of his finger. This was a interesting power he had picked up from his target in the Angel World. He had other skills from that time, but he would limit himself for now as to not give away his full power. "I see you have unwavering loyalty in your leader and each other. I admire that in people though I must admit not enough emotions for me to read and relate to. Thats kind of makes you all a bit boring," he said as turned around and started to walk off. He wanted to test these people to see if they would target a person with their back turned. This was just a character examination more then anything else.

Techpriest Matthias rubbed his mechanical hands with glee as he approached Captain Titus in the command room. "Sir! This girl is compressing weaponry and ammunition in a computer chip in her EYE! IT'S THE SOLUTION TO OUR AMMUNITION PROBLEM!"

Captain Titus was intrigued. One of the drawbacks to the Bolter was that, due to the size of the rounds, ammunition was limited per clip. When defending bases this wasn't too much of a problem strategically, as ammunition could be supplied everywhere, but when invading other planets availability of rounds has slowed down exterminations by a few hours.

Carrying three tonnes of ammunition into battle would be a huge benefit if they could cooperate with the girl.

"Have Taguel order his unit to stand down." Titus ordered. "Send in Aaron's team to negotiate a meeting between her and Matthias. We want her willing and voluntary to work with us."

In the streets

There was a flash of fire as Alons was carried out of the danger area, along with the other two Marines, carried by the marine with the bird-shaped helmet and the lightning claws.

Lt. Taguel.

The three marines he was carrying lowered themselves to the ground level, and followed him as they blasted into the sky.

Space Marines never retreat. They never fall back.

They were reallocated as five more Marines appeared in a flash of light.

These Marines were bigger than the Assault Squad. Each carried, no, hefted a massive gun, some having muzzles large enough for Charlotte to poke her head into. Their shoulder pads were larger, the ammunition belts carried into their massive energy packs on their backs, giving an impression of an upright tortoise carrying a shark.

The leader, a Space Marine carrying what seemed to be a double-barrelled shotgun-bolter in one hand removed his helmet and approached Charlotte slowly. "We just want to talk." The Sergeant said. "Ideally about guns, since it's something we have in common. My name is Aaron, what may I call you?"

@ChronoWolf:

Vigil laughed heartily at the reaction, and offer, of Tom's team. "For a start, lose the dirty looks." He announced. "I am a law abiding servant of the Emperium and I don't go about luring young maidens into my mansion and devouring their souls, if that's the kind of vampire you're used to."

"In the Empirum, races have intermingled so long that species is more about genealogy than of identity, like how someone in Manhattan would refer to themselves as Italian despite never leaving New York." Uriel explained. "My grandmother was a mermaid but I don't even have so much as a single scale."

"That cleared up, we would appreciate the help." Vigil told FEAR, pointing out into the distance. "We have Scouts preparing Glue Mines and mud ditches to disable US Military tanks and vehicles, but we anticipate that they will attempt a ground assault regardless. Get out there, rendezvous with Scout Leader Dan and follow his instructions. He's leading interference, we want you spoiling ammunition, confusing communications, damaging vehicles, anything to stop them from actually fighting without harming them. We want a bloodless battle today, despite how much you love it."

Vigil nudged Tom in the arm with a smile and a wink. "Ah, I'm such a tease." He said. "Anything we can help you guys with?"

@Shadowchaos:

The Space Marine turned to take the chaos energy to his shoulder plate, and the sensors in his helmet alerted him to just what it was.

Raven had made a huge mistake.

Chaos was the natural enemy of the Emperium of Light.

Space Marines had been designed to become the natural predator of Chaos.

Raven may not be a creature of Chaos, but he used it, and that was enough.

Burn The Heretic.

Kill The Mutant.

Purge The Unclean.

Rounds were changed. Guns were raised.

Two Bolters fired Psychobane Rounds, reduced fuse, they would explode in the vicinity of Raven, disabling his powers.

Two Bolters fired Hellfire Rounds, which have devastating results on organic matter. The core and tip are replaced with a vial of mutagenic acid with thousands of needles that fire into the target upon the shattering of the vial, pumping the acid into the foe.

Those two combined, even if the rounds miss, will turn the air around Raven into a flesh-eating mist in a field where he could not teleport, create barriers, or regenerate.

The middle round, aimed at his torso, was an Ulysses round. A non-exploding round that would track his data and reveal his coordinates to the Marines at all times for the rest of eternity. He would be followed everywhere and the Space Marines could warp men and machines to his location indefinitely, regardless of how much he teleports, regenerates, transforms or redefines himself. These were designed to hunt ever-changing denizens of chaos, and if by some strange phenomenon Raven survived this power-destroying-flesh-consuming firing squad he had turned his back to, he would be hunted the rest of his days.

If he had a day left. The Terminators would be out before the afternoon was out.

"Charlotte." she replies to the man's question, though she still doesn't lower Excalibur and she keeps her aim at him. It was unusual for her not to open fire but when the man mentioned weapons he got her curiosity.

Despite the fact that she was interested in what he had to say the expression on her was as blank as always.

Aaron held his Heavy Bolter out by the top handle, flicking a switch to release the ammunition belt and offered it to Charlotte.

"This is my Heavy Bolter, I named him Sebastian." Aaron explained. "Would you like to take a closer look?"

If there were any other Space Marines other than his squad or HQ watching right now, they would have strung Aaron up for heresy. Bolters were sacred weapons, each gun was blessed and anointed by the techpriests that built them back on Mars, to allow an outsider to touch it, let alone examine it, was considered an incredible insult to the machine spirit of the weapon.

But Aaron was part of the clergy, albeit a lowly acolyte. He could sense the machine spirits of the weapons the girl carried- and the girl herself was a strange polymer of human and machine herself- blood and oil, like Aaron and any other Techpriest.

He needed to know if she could feel the Machine Spirit like he could. He needed to establish the necessary kinship with her. Sebastian understood the importance of this mission, and was willing to sacrifice himself at the hands of this strange girl if he was called to do so.

"Here." Aaron repeated, holding Sebastian out for Charlotte to examine while glancing at her gun. "This is... Excalibur... am I correct?"

Charlotte accepts the gun handed out to her, but in a retreating manner, like a shy girl would while taking candy from a relative. The bolter felt different than what she expected. She pictured the weapons the Space Marines used to be much like weapons humans used, just more advance. But that wasn't the case. The weapon had something familiar about it.

Charlotte disliked mass produced weapons and refused to use them unless the situation forced her to do so. That's one of the reasons she only uses weapons she made herself, those weapons were companions she could trust and rely on. On the other hand using standard issue weapons just left her cold and an uncomfortable feeling in the stomach.

The bolter in her hand right now, Sebastian, did not trigger a reaction like that. Despite looking like it was mass produced it had it's very own unique spark, something that made Charlotte feel warm while holding it. Even though she was positively surprised by the feeling the weapon conveyed she kept her blank expression, avoiding showing any emotions that were connected to her opinion about Sebastian or what she felt in the weapon. Of course the weapon didn't get any close to being as trustworthy as one of her own weapons, but if she had to pick between this or any weapon humans could offer her she wouldn't have to think for long, even if she ignored the obvious advantages the bolter held.

She nods at the Aaron's question about her own weapon. It made her somehow scared that he was so interested in Excalibur and her other weapons, but now that her own curiosity was awakened she found it hard to just refuse the offer.